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Why do they call them all a "gigafactory"? This is getting ridiculous since the subject "gigafactory" in the article is a million square feet and 500 employees.

paganel 9y ago
If you put "giga" everywhere you increase the hype, increased hype probably means a higher share price, a higher share price means more money for investors (virtual or real money, it doesn't matter), more money is good.
- JurgenKlein 9y ago
  Hexamegagigablockchain.
philipkglass 9y ago
The Buffalo plant is aiming for a gigawatt of annual cell production by 2019: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-31/tesla-starts-production-of-solar-cells-in-buffalo https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-31/tesla-sta... Which is admittedly not large by global standards, but bigger than any solar manufacturing facility that has operated in the US.
yborg 9y ago
Excellent point, this is merely a megafactory. (A billion square ft factory, according to Wolfram Alpha, would occupy ~35 square miles or 92 sq. km.)
p0wn 9y ago
POWER UP THE GIGAFACTORY.
gknight 9y ago
> The name Gigafactory comes from the word “Giga,” the unit of measurement representing “billions.” The factory’s planned annual battery production capacity is 35 gigawatt-hours (GWh), with one GWh being the equivalent of generating (or consuming) 1 billion watts for one hour. This is nearly as much as the entire world’s current battery production combined. via https://www.tesla.com/gigafactory https://www.tesla.com/gigafactory Doesn't explain why they call Buffalo's operation a "Gigafactory," but that's the origin of the name for the more well-known Nevada-based Gigafactory.
- infogulch 9y ago
  I wonder what their expected total produced solar capacity will be. I feel like it could be over a gigawatt, in line with the battery gigafactory.
agumonkey 9y ago
it's version 2, the density of components increased
atonse 9y ago
Because it's really smart branding. Giga as a prefix has come to mean "really big, bigger than mega" colloquially, not just the metric uses of it. Maybe it's just a form of inflation of hype :) What used to be called mega this and mega that, is now called giga this and that?

paganel 9y ago

If you put "giga" everywhere you increase the hype, increased hype probably means a higher share price, a higher share price means more money for investors (virtual or real money, it doesn't matter), more money is good.

JurgenKlein 9y ago
Hexamegagigablockchain.

philipkglass 9y ago

The Buffalo plant is aiming for a gigawatt of annual cell production by 2019: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-31/tesla-starts-production-of-solar-cells-in-buffalo https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-31/tesla-sta... Which is admittedly not large by global standards, but bigger than any solar manufacturing facility that has operated in the US.

yborg 9y ago

Excellent point, this is merely a megafactory. (A billion square ft factory, according to Wolfram Alpha, would occupy ~35 square miles or 92 sq. km.)

p0wn 9y ago

POWER UP THE GIGAFACTORY.

gknight 9y ago

> The name Gigafactory comes from the word “Giga,” the unit of measurement representing “billions.” The factory’s planned annual battery production capacity is 35 gigawatt-hours (GWh), with one GWh being the equivalent of generating (or consuming) 1 billion watts for one hour. This is nearly as much as the entire world’s current battery production combined. via https://www.tesla.com/gigafactory https://www.tesla.com/gigafactory Doesn't explain why they call Buffalo's operation a "Gigafactory," but that's the origin of the name for the more well-known Nevada-based Gigafactory.

infogulch 9y ago
I wonder what their expected total produced solar capacity will be. I feel like it could be over a gigawatt, in line with the battery gigafactory.

agumonkey 9y ago

it's version 2, the density of components increased

atonse 9y ago

Because it's really smart branding. Giga as a prefix has come to mean "really big, bigger than mega" colloquially, not just the metric uses of it. Maybe it's just a form of inflation of hype :) What used to be called mega this and mega that, is now called giga this and that?